After a few weeks of cold, hail and strong winds, Sunday 10th April provided a perfect opportunity to get out onto the road again. The promised sunshine and a slightly later start at 9.30 produced a good turn out with 10 riders ready to go: Andrea Woollcott, Jake & Ian Bird, David Robinson. Scott Barber, Andy King, Jon Thorne, Sophie Griffin, Wayne …and me, Andy Parker.
Blood pumping start
Hospital Hill gets the blood pumping to the legs and the drag up to Loddington kept the heart rate high as we moved west and south before traversing north of Northampton through Moulton. The bumps through Holcot started to create a gap in the group with Jon, Sophie and myself dropping back a little to be joined by Andy King, whose back wheel we gladly seized, allowing him to drag us through the Houghtons and on to a very busy Salcey Forest and a chocolate brownie and a cup of tea at Grounds Café.
Homeward
The road homeward was breeze assisted and the group stuck together pretty well from Horton, through Brafield and on to Cogenhoe. The Col d’Earl’s Barton however, took its toll and fragmentation of the group started again.
Onwards to the Easter weekend and more sunshine.
It is great to see that Jake Bird – the youngest member of the group, was riding at the front throughout – even having to wait a couple of times for his old man to catch up (Ian was ahead of me!).
